For the data center industry, this is the best of times. The vigorous development of the digital economy has promoted the digitalization of industries and the digital transformation of enterprises into an in-depth stage, greatly increasing the demand for infrastructure such as data centers, and ushering in unprecedented market opportunities for the data center industry.
At the same time, for the data center industry, this is an extremely challenging era. The current data center industry faces a series of formidable challenges that cannot be ignored due to the continuous expansion of data center scale, increasing computing power density, high energy consumption under the double carbon target, and difficult management.
There is no doubt that the data center, known as the "engine of the digital economy", is kicking off an industrial transformation. So, what are the main trends in the data center industry in the future? In the face of rapid changes in demand, how should the industry respond? How should the ecological path of the data center industry go?
Recently, at the 2023 China Digital Energy Ecology Conference with the theme of "Carbon Road China, Win-Win Future" and the Data Center Industry Forum held at the same time, representatives from relevant units in the data center industry, industry experts, and representatives of customers and partners gathered around the data center There were heated discussions on industrial development trends, data center technology innovation, and data center industry ecology.
Two Definite Trends: Intelligentization and Low Carbonization
Currently, data centers are in a stage of rapid development.
According to statistics, the compound annual growth rate of computing power and data carried by data centers exceeds 30%, which directly drives the continuous increase in the scale and number of data centers. For example, with the recent rise of the AIGC wave, the training and reasoning of AI large models need to consume a lot of computing, storage, power and other resources in the data center.
Taking the Chinese market as an example, with the needs of the development of the digital economy, strategies such as new infrastructure, east-to-west calculation, dual-carbon goals, and digital China have been introduced and fully implemented, and data center construction has also entered a peak period. Statistics from CCID Consulting show that in the past year, there were more than 160 data center projects under construction or completed in the Chinese market.
However, many current data center projects still have problems such as complex construction process, long launch cycle, difficult life cycle operation, and high energy consumption. For example, in terms of energy consumption, the data for 2022 shows that the average PUE of large data centers in China is still as high as 1.5. Therefore, under the strategic background of digital economy + dual carbon goals, the high-quality development of the data center industry is imminent.
Sun Xiaofeng, president of Huawei's data center energy and key power supply business, believes that intelligence and low carbonization are two "certain" trends in the development of the data center industry.
Focusing on the high-quality development of the two major industries of intelligence and low carbonization, the data center will mainly have five major development directions:
- The scale of computing power infrastructure will continue to expand in the future, and the proportion of high-performance computing power such as AI will continue to increase. It is estimated that by 2025, the scale of data centers will double that of 2022, and the industry as a whole will maintain rapid growth;
- Computing power will enter a new era of high-efficiency interconnection development to meet the trend of computing power convenience, intelligence, and automation;
- Data center PUE management and control will become stricter, and the development of the entire chain of the data center industry will go deep into the green stage;
- The process of high-density, modularization, and intelligentization of data centers continues to deepen, such as the high-density, modularization brought about by AI large models, and AI technology gradually changes the operation and maintenance of data centers;
- The data center industry will move towards intensification, the market concentration will continue to increase, and the share of leading companies is expected to increase.
Song Yu, vice president of CCID Consulting, introduced that digital infrastructure such as data centers is the material carrier for the implementation of digital technology and the function of data elements. The five major development directions of the data center will open a new chapter of high computing power and enter the stage of integrated computing power for efficient interconnection; facing the challenge of high density, further promote green, modular, and intelligent, and create data from passive security to active security. A new era of center development.
Fei Zhenfu, president of Huawei's data center energy domain, believes that for the four basic elements of sustainable development of data centers, carbon-neutral deployment, agility, operation and maintenance efficiency, and service reliability, it is necessary to focus on GSSR (green, minimalist, intelligent, Security) concept to create a solid foundation for the digital world.
Build a solid foundation for the digital world with the concept of GSSR
It can be said that in the face of a series of challenges in data centers such as energy consumption, deployment, operation and maintenance, and security, the data center industry has increasingly reached a consensus that the future of data centers must be green (Green), minimal (Simple), intelligent ( Smart) and safe (Reliable) high-quality development.
From the perspective of green, under the trend of increasingly strict PUE control, high efficiency and energy saving, high density and space saving, and full-chain carbon are the main directions for the green development of data centers. Promote the PUE of data centers to meet the standard, and shorten the transmission chain through technical means. Improve the efficiency of the entire data center supply chain.
From a minimalist point of view, the data center has developed from a 1000-cabinet level to a 10,000-cabinet park level, and the scale, quantity, and deployment mode of the data center have all undergone great changes. Especially with the rapid development of artificial intelligence computing power, the urgency of rapid deployment and flexibility is extremely obvious. Therefore, minimal deployment and maintenance are the rigid needs of future data centers, and prefabrication, modularization, and other methods that can greatly reduce costs and shorten PTM will become the mainstream.
From the perspective of intelligence, with the sharp increase in the scale and density of data centers, the number of various equipment in data centers is also showing a rapid growth trend. Through AI technology, intelligent inspection, intelligent operation and maintenance, and energy efficiency optimization have become data centers. Important directions in intelligence.
From a security perspective, the trend of data centers is active security, architectural security, and network security, which require the safe operation of the end-to-end care system from components to systems, from hardware to systems.
To this end, Huawei's minimalist, green, intelligent, and secure low-carbon data center solutions are aimed at large data centers, small and medium data centers, and key power supply scenarios, leading the industry to accelerate towards a new era of low-carbon intelligence.
For large-scale data centers, FusionPower power module 3.0 creates a power supply and distribution solution for large-scale data centers that saves land, electricity, time, and worry, leading the deep integration and innovation of power supply and distribution systems; for small and medium-sized data centers, smart micro-module 6.0 Create a one-stop solution for small and medium-sized data centers, leading the upsurge of modular computer room construction; for precision manufacturing, transportation, office and other key power supply scenarios, with high-efficiency UPS series uninterruptible power supply, fully modular architecture, AI predictive maintenance and other technologies, realize Reliable, energy-saving and stable intelligent power supply.
Fei Zhenfu, President of Huawei's Data Center Energy Domain, said: "For the three major scenarios, Huawei is focusing on building a future-oriented data center to build a solid foundation for the digital world."
However, the data center industry chain is long, there are many upstream and downstream manufacturers of various types, and the equipment products and technologies are complex. To truly promote the development of a future-oriented green, minimalist, intelligent, and secure data center, the entire industry chain must work together to build Its open and benign industrial ecology. As Zhou Jianjun, President of Huawei Digital Energy China said, in the context of carbon neutrality, Huawei hopes to grow together with partners and create value through technology empowerment and ecological construction. Huawei will adhere to the "partner + Huawei" open cooperation system, With long-term planning and measures, gather ecological partners to achieve a win-win goal.
Co-construct a benign ecology of the data center industry
If people have no rules, they will not stand, and if there is no ecology, the industry will not thrive.
Ecology is a bridge between the upstream and downstream of an industry chain, and it is also the basis for the long-term prosperity and development of the industry. At present, data centers are stepping into a period of transformation at an accelerated pace, which has brought about the prosperity of products and technologies, but there are also "chaotic phenomena" with vastly different technical paths, specifications, and standards, which are not conducive to the long-term development of the entire data center industry ecology.
Today, Huawei is taking the lead in taking the lead and playing the leading role in the industry. Through the "partner + Huawei" open cooperation system, it joins hands with industrial customers, experts, consulting and design units, and integration units to give full play to their respective strengths, realize the puzzle of capabilities, and jointly promote high-quality data centers. develop.
For example, as a professional third-party data center operator in China, 21Vianet has reached a strategic cooperation with Huawei in the face of new requirements and challenges for the construction and operation of the data center due to the double-carbon policy. Green and zero carbonization. Xue Liang, senior vice president of 21Vianet, said that the two parties will lead by technological innovation, jointly build a new zero-carbon ecosystem, and jointly promote the implementation of the dual-carbon policy in the data center industry.
Another example is in the financial industry, which is related to the national economy and the people's livelihood, and users in the financial industry have increasingly prominent demands for green, minimalist, intelligent, and secure data center construction. Feng Gangming, deputy general manager of Dongguan Shenzhen Securities Communications, believes that the construction of a first-class data center has four characteristics: safety, reliability, greenness, and intelligence. Partition etc.
Xu Changcheng, chairman of Shanghai Junsenming Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., said that after cooperating with Huawei, the covered industries have spanned from intelligent manufacturing to finance, IDC, medicine and other industries. The business scope has expanded to the whole country, and enterprise management has become more professional. Contribute to building a green society.
In addition, in addition to the benign ecological construction of the data center, the data center industry has increasingly prominent deployment, delivery, and operation service needs. Huawei is accelerating the creation of a digitally intelligent global high-quality service system that matches digital energy business scenarios. Zeng Yufeng, vice president of the Global Marketing and Sales Service Department of Huawei Digital Energy, said that Huawei will collaborate and enable partners to create safe, full, and efficient delivery, realize high-quality "CARES" operations and intelligent O&M, and continue to create comprehensive solutions for customers. lifetime value.
According to comprehensive observation, under the trend of low-carbonization, electrification, digitalization, and intelligence, the dividend of the data center industry has accelerated. As Hou Jinlong, President of Digital Energy Technology Co., Ltd. said: the digital world and the energy world will be deeply integrated and developed in the future, and the energy industry will enter a new era of digital energy. Facing the future, the data center will be the cornerstone of the entire digital world, and the development of the data center towards green, minimalist, intelligent, and safe will inevitably bring a better green future to the entire human society.